XXIX

"I don't understand something " Luka spoke when they sat in his bedroom eating breakfast. Last night having been so eventful, the two had simply slept in each others arms, even though he had woken up with a hiss as she scratched at him in her dreams, her nightmares caring little to give her a peaceful sleep. She had recoiled back when he had shaken her awake from the pits, noticing her damage, she hadn't wanted to cause any further, hence she decided it was time she got her own room. A request she planned to soon make

"What don't you understand?" she asked looking at him, shoving some oranges in her mouth, Luka seemed in thought as she saw the gears turning in his eyes

"How you're still alive when four bodies had been found with descriptions that fit everyone in your family" brows furrowed, and a storm of questions brewing in his eyes.

"They were not my family" her tone was cold and he understood. She sighed knowing that she should have expected the anturouge of questions. Quite frankly,  she was surprised he had lasted this long without asking her anything since the first day she had woken up. Sighing she said

"Well..." she started,  wondering if she should tell him the truth or not, him being the son of the man who had killed her parents, what would he do then? Although she had a soft spot for Luka, she was yet to truly know the man.

"I may or may have not caused it" she said and Luka seemed more confused than ever. She shook her head

"Next question" she instructed. Luka decided he would humour her vagueness and see just how far she would stretch it before trying to figure out why she was being vague to begin with

"Torres" he started and he saw her eyes steel over and all expression disappeared from her face. And she stood up and walked toward the balcony doors. "Why, why did he do what he did to you, only to drop you at my gates " her head snapped back at Luka at the new information to the question she had wondered. So he hadn't been the one to rescue her, she thought. Instead, she had been dumped on him right as she was about to most probably kick the bucket. She wondered then if Deacon thought her dead or if he new she survived.

"So that's how I ended up here"Luka watched her as she mused with a thoughtful expression, before she looked back out the glass doors.

"He did what he did because he's a twisted, that's why. He wanted to use me for his own twisted reasons and I happened to refuse. And well I think it was obvious that he didn't take the rejection very well" she served the half truth on a silver platter, with a sigh she turned around to face Luka's way. Her hands crossed, an indication of being defensive, one Luka didn't miss, he new she was keeping something else close to her chest, her body language was a dead give away. Yet he also knew she wasn't lying either.

"What was his twisted reason? " he asked carefully, fisting his hands at the image of how she had looked shivering on the ground that night, Bella didn't miss it

"He wanted a doll.  And well, I'm no toy" she simply said,  her tone too nonchalant that it somehow irked him and he said

"How are you so calm right now?" he questioned and she let out a cold chuckle

"Only to keep from marching to his house and slitting his throat clean" She spat out and her words shocked him however, Luka simply chalked it up to anger

"Don't worry, he'll get what I have planned for him, no one touches what's mine and gets away with it" she watched the man grit out the words with a far of look and his words rubbed her off the wrong way.

"Let's get something straight here" she started and Luka looked at her "I'm not yours to be claimed as such. Secondly, I'm not demself I distress either" he couldn't help but interrupt

"Could have fooled me" which served to piss her off more along with the voice in her head egging on, she gave him a cold glare with her next words

"Luka Genovese, you know nothing about me and what I'm capable of. As for Deacon, you better stay a great fuckin distance away from him, cause I want my vengeance and I don't need men matching off to avenge me as if I'm dead or helpless. Cause I am sure as hell none of those things. Besides, they say revenge is best served cold, well I like mine warm and bloody sweet.  No one touches him but me" growling out the last bits, her words dripped with all the hatred and furry she felt.

Bella cared little to suppress the emotions she had kept bottled up for ages, for she would no longer leave it be and pursue peace. Surely her parents would understand, they raised a fighter after all.

She was Killer Sunshine and Deacon Torres would come to know just what cloth of the universe she was made from. Luka was nothing but shocked at her words. She looked intent on fulfilling her promise and with the look in her eyes,  he wondered then, just who Bella Graneda was. For she had so easily evaded his men and disappeared off from the face of the earth, only to show up as she did. He had wondered how Deacon had found her, wondered if the man had known something he didn't.

Seeing that she was being vague and with her outburst, it had him thinking that perhaps he would source out more information from someone else than the angry woman that marched for the doors and he questioned

"Where do you think you're going?" not liking his tone, she shot him a cold look

"Do I look like a bitch on a leash that needs to report to its master?" her attitude proved to aggitate him just the same as he stood up marching her way, 

[Atta girl. I'm starting to like this version of you more. They should make you angry more often.] Sin enthused. Bella ignores her, too focused on the fuming man before her 

"I'll fucking turn you into one seeing you're so eager to galavant these walls half naked like one" he spat as he stood before her. His towering stature did little to intimidate her and she glared back at him just the same

"Well it's not like you cared to get me clothes. We both know the reason why,  and I'm starting to think you and Deacon were just about cut from the same cloth" the next second a hand wrapped around her throat in utter furry,

"Don't you dare compare me to that lowlife scum" he grounded out.  And she smirked at him then

"Funny, cause both of you seem to think you have a claim on me" she rasped out, her eyes clashing with his "And neither of you seem to have a problem harming me" at her last words he let her go then,  as he had last night,  as if she had burned his hand, he looked like she had just slapped him,  and she chuckled ruefully then.

"I want my own room. And if not, I have no problem disappearing again, only to return just to burn your ducking houses down. You know I'm the devil like that. Fire's my forte and I will it like I gave birth to it" she said calmly, paying mind that her voice was scratchy and just about on the verge of disappearing. He sure has a strong grip, but little control over that temper. She thought

She said nothing as she turned and left the room for the first time ever. Although Greta had told her of all the mansion housed, she knew it would be a maze to navigate, however, not only did she have to go to the gym, she now had to get some more food because she was yet to eat her breakfast left back in the room. Having only touched the citrus fruit first, out of the pancakes and toast along with the fruit salad she had been served. She just about mourned the abandoned food, only to decide she'd return for it, gym was first. She may have little strentgh, however, she had survived on it before, she can do it again, she could survive for a few hours.

Big as the mansion was, it didn't take long for Bella to realise she was on the third floor of the house, when she reached wide stairs that seemed endless for a while. She thought walking down them was an exercise by itself. It was when she reached the last set in her hurry, when she almost ran into a big burly man walking up the stairs and the two almost collided. It took Bella a second to come out of the shock and she asked the man

"Can you direct me to the gym?" it took the man a second to take in her question, furrowing his brows in confusion as to why she would ask for directions to that place in the first place, not forgetting some men were busy in there and the fact that she was barely appropriately dressed, he still told her.

"Down the stairs, take a left turn, the last door in the corridor" minute she had the directions, she muttered a thanks and rushed to her destination.

Minute she walked in, she took note of how big it was, also how occupied, however, she cared little for the people in the room, for she had one aim in mind, and that was to get to work. She knew she might need to go light for a little while, however, despite knowing that, she wasn't prepared for just how light her body would demand she take it.

Having set the treadmill for an hour, barefoot as she was, by the time she was thirty minutes in, her body was done for. Sniffling, she still pushed on, getting frustrated for she used to run an hour without a sweat. Fuelled by both frustration and anger, she pushed herself to the limit and by the time the time the hour was done, she could barely breath as she hung onto the hand bars, panting hard, her body drenched, she refused to give up just yet.

And so she went on to try her usual for warm up, from squats that burnt her thighs to hell and planks she could barely hold for a minute, to burpees that made to worsen her state. She realised she had felt that weak before, and the familiar feeling was most unwelcomed, for she hated the feeling, weakness and vulnerability. With tears streaming down her face, she refused to stop as she pushed her body.

Her desperation was the kind the men in the room had never seen before, as they watched the young woman, at first they had simply been curious about her. In just a shirt and boxers, she had clearly been unprepared for the gym. And although some had appreciated the view, especially when her body was drenched in sweat, causing the shirt to be wet itself, it was when she cried through weak push up as she tried to bring her body up, her arms terribly trembling, that they found themselves worried.

Despite her body refusing to cooperate with her mind, it was clear to them that she was a woman of strong will. Yet even they couldn't stand to look at her tear herself apart, for she was bound to hurt herself with how she was going, and how weak her body appeared. It was like they were invisible to her, hence she had made no move to stop one of the men from making a call.

Having realised who she was, not only for the manly cologne that only one Genovese wore that wafted off of her, however, the fact that neither of them were ever allowed to bring a lady home, and therefore, that had left one option.

Luka, still fuming, although he also felt guilty from her words, regarding him having not hesitated to choke her, his poor attempt to reign her in, the call simply added fuel to the already brewing anger that had begun to simmer in her absence, when she had left him standing alone in his room, thinking over her words.

What he hadn't expected, was to find her in the state she was, like a woman crazed. He marched toward her, glaring the men back to their business, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. And he found had it been any other time, perhaps he might have laughed when she made to insult him, her weak fists beating at his back.